Month: January 2013

George Allen, Coach Who Built Winners, Dies at 72:
Football: Motivator of troubled teams led Rams, Redskins and Cal State Long Beach to victorious seasons.

Los Angeles Times
January 01, 1991|STEPHEN BRAUN | TIMES STAFF WRITER

George Allen, the steely personification of the victory-obsessed football coach, who motivated underachieving Los Angeles Rams and over-the-hill Washington Redskins teams into perennial powerhouses and came back this year to post one last winning season as coach of the Cal State Long Beach 49ers, died Monday.

Allen, a physical fitness buff who never fulfilled his elusive dream of building a national fitness academy, died of natural causes at his Palos Verdes Estates home. He was 72.The man who coached for six decades had been complaining of a cold, said Perry Moore, a former athletic director at Cal State Long Beach. Allen telephoned Moore about 11:30 Monday morning and they talked for about 20 minutes.

“He was hoarse and he said he had a cold and didn’t feel good,” Moore said. “We talked about football and he said he thought he could get a couple of good kids (recruits) for next year’s team.”

Another report, confirmed by a university official, suggested that a giddy locker-room celebration after the college team’s season-ending victory against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, might have contributed to Allen’s recent poor health. The coach was doused with ice water by his ecstatic players and ever since had not been feeling well, said Becca Wohlt, a university spokeswoman.

Sonoma County banking circles were shocked Tuesday by word of the unexpected death of Dave Brown, an admired and seasoned commercial-banking executive who worked for several local banks before joining Bank of Marin late in 2010.

Brown, 53, lay lifeless on the porch of his Santa Rosa home when his wife, Roni, arrived home shortly before 7 p.m. Monday. The couple’s new dog, Ben, watched over him.
An autopsy will seek to determine the cause of the longtime Santa Rosa resident’s death. Friends said Brown, an avid golfer, had seemed perfectly healthy except for mild symptoms of a cold.

“It’s so shocking it’s nearly impossible to say anything,” said friend and colleague Debbie Meekins, president and chief executive of Santa Rosa-based First Community Bank.

“He was so young and so bright,” Meekins said. “He was very successful in his career, very highly regarded in the banking community. The thought of it is almost unbearable.”

Cleveland Cavaliers center Anderson Varejao is out for the rest of the season with a blood clot.(Photo: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports)

The injury news for the Cleveland Cavaliers got worse Monday morning when it was announced that center Anderson Varejao has a blood clot in his lung and will be out the rest of the season.

Varejao had been out with an ankle injury. He was leading the league in rebounding at the time of that injury.

“Clearly our players’ health is our top concern and we are disappointed for Anderson, and his family,” Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant said in a statement. “We know what a competitor he is and how much he wants to be on the court helping his teammates. In the meantime, he has our full support and we look forward to welcoming him back as he recovers.”

Pete Wilson, the TV news anchor with the best exasperated sigh in the business, died unexpectedly Friday night, a day after having a heart attack during hip replacement surgery.

Wilson, 62, underwent the surgery at Stanford Hospital late Thursday and suffered a massive heart attack. Doctors battled to keep him alive until Friday night, when he was taken off life support. He succumbed at 9:20 p.m.

“He was just walking out the door a couple of days ago,” said KGO-TV colleague Wayne Freedman. “Looking forward to getting this taken care of and getting back out on the golf course.”

The hip replacement was Wilson’s second. He had one about 12 years ago, according to family spokesman Chapin Day. Oddly enough, in 2005 another well-known Bay Area broadcaster, sports announcer Bill King, also died following surgery to repair his artificial hip.